In order to find memories of the past, when Shen Shiyu, a girl from Changsha, walked into the set of the movie "Kong Xiu" wearing her grandmother's old sweater when she was young, she felt that she was connected to "a strange yet familiar time and space" at that moment.
This film tells the story of Kong Xiu (played by Shen Shiyu), a female printing and dyeing factory worker from the early 1960s to the mid-1980s, who got rid of the shackles of marriage, tempered herself in the turbulent times, and finally realized the value of life. It is undoubtedly in line with today's times. Social trends such as feminism and feminist awakening. But Shen Shiyu, who stars in the film, believes that "Kong Xiu's story reminds me of my grandmother and grandma. They both have five children. They are the kind of traditional Chinese women who have put in a lot of labor inside and outside the family."
Grandma's The warmth that the old sweater brought to Shen Shiyu seemed to be intertwined with the life of the character Kong Xiu in the film. This emotional continuity led Shen Shiyu to finish the play. After almost 40 days of filming, Shen Shiyu lamented that "Gong Xiu's character seems to be himself in another parallel time and space."
Recently, "Kong Soo" has also been released in China, even though the film has already won a lot of awards at international film festivals: the 70th San Sebastian International Film Festival Best Screenplay Award, the 18th Eurasia International Film Festival Film Festival Best Actress Award (Shen Shiyu)... But in Shen Shiyu's view, her life experience in this role is more profound than the honor. "A transcendent woman like Kong Xiu has completely transcended the limitations of the times. Kong Xiu, who broke free from the shackles of her destiny, is not an outdated character. It can be said that her story is still inspiring to us today. "
For Shen Shiyu, "acting" was once a concrete dream, and "becoming an actor. "It means that the role played is seen and recognized. "When I was in elementary school, we still watched black and white TV sets at home. At that time, I watched the actors in costume dramas flying around in the sky. Later I learned about this The cool job is called 'actor', so I told adults, 'I also want to be an actor'..." However, Shen Shiyu also bluntly said that her childhood dream of being an actor was still relatively far away after all, "But it is also like a seed, planting I’m just waiting for the day when it will sprout.”
Her parents are not people in the industry, and she did not grow up in an artistic environment. Shen Shiyu can only rely on her own efforts to pursue the career of an actor. For Shen Shiyu, enrolling in a performing arts professional college may be the only way to continue her dream of being an actor. However, things didn't work out as she wished. Shen Shiyu tried but failed, so she had to go to an ordinary university in Sichuan to study acting.
After graduating in 2012, Shen Shiyu returned to Changsha. After experiencing the selection and selection of various jobs, in the first half of 2015, Shen Shiyu came to Beijing with dreams in mind and became a "Beijing drifter". Shen Shiyu said that she wanted to be an actor, but she didn’t know how to start. “Although I had accumulated some acting experience intermittently before, it was not a movie. After wandering in Beijing for a while, I didn’t do anything, and I felt special. I am depressed and have to face the cruel truth: I have no professional training, no 'connections', and I don't know anyone. How can I become an actor?" Shen Shiyu said that this was her "last stand" and there was almost no way out. , she was 26 years old that year.
At the end of 2015, Shen Shiyu was lucky enough to shoot her first short film "Looking for Buddha", "This is a student work of Chinese students studying abroad. At that time, my views on being an actor were very pure, and I used the greatest Work hard to present this character." Shen Shiyu said that after filming this short film, she seemed to be enlightened and found the feeling of making movies. According to Shen Shiyu, from that time on, what has always supported her to continue to be an actress is a "simple" feeling: "I really enjoy making movies." "During this period of time, I have made many short films. These works have allowed me to persist on my career as an actor." In different works, I have played the role of a young drifter from the North, a single mother... and the accumulation of these roles is also Let Shen Shiyu gradually find the state of mind of an actor, and finally waited for "Kong Xiu".
Shen Shiyu said that when she first saw the news that the crew of "Gong Xiu" was recruiting actors, she did not think that this role would belong to her. "It stated that the actress needs to be from 25 to over 40 years old, and the role is too old. I My visual age was relatively young, so I didn’t have much hope, so I didn’t submit the materials. Later, the casting director I worked with helped me submit the materials, so I didn’t miss "Gong Xiu"."
Later, Shen Shiyu went to the crew for an interview. The director, producer, etc. chatted together for several hours, and finally the crew confirmed that I would star in "Gong Xiu". "The reason why they think I am suitable for Kong Xiu is probably because I am a very 'vegetarian' person. The director said that in I see the simplicity of my parents’ generation in that era.” The script of “Gong Xiu” is different from the scripts Shen Shiyu read before. There are not many lines, not even descriptions of the characters’ actions and thoughts, only descriptions of the characters’ actions and thoughts. A brief description of the environment, "Director Wang Chao told me that the script is only the starting point and reference for "Kong Xiu", and we need to fill it in and enrich it during the creative process. During the script reading, the director took us through every scene , explores the character's psychology and action lines in each scene, allowing us to perceive the character's mood and judge the rationality of the character's behavior and language. "
The era background of "Kong Xiu" is from the late 1960s to the present. In the early 1980s, in order to better understand the character, Shen Shiyu explored the memories of the era through communication with relatives around her. "There were people around me who came from that era, such as my mother, grandma, and grandma. So I talked with my mother. The times she experienced, and the views on marriage at that time, my mother told me that we were very poor at that time, people lived to make a living and get married, and divorce like Kong Xiu was unthinkable. "Kong Xiu is a worker. , is also a mother. She worked hard while taking care of two children. "Kong Xiu suffered a physical and mental double blow in her unhappy marriage, but she still knew what she couldn't abandon. She accepted unfair treatment and was not afraid. Despite the oppression of the world, she seems to have been completing her spiritual practice. "
It is this kind of speculation and thinking that allows Shen Shiyu to enter the heart of the character Kong Xiu. "In the end, when it came time to actually shoot, all the actors in the "Kong Show" crew, including myself, were completely immersed in the world of performance. When we arrived at the scene, even if we didn't shout to start, everyone was already living the lives of their respective characters." Shen Shiyu He said that actors must retain their rationality on the set and not allow themselves to be completely immersed in the emotions of the character. "Some scenes with large emotional fluctuations are very draining for actors. In the past, I might have lost my energy after three takes, but the director He will tell us not to copy previous performances. Before and after each scene, the director will remind us: we must be more sensitive, more focused, and feel it from scratch. All this has benefited me a lot. In those few minutes, I was not ‘performing for the sake of performing’, but truly enjoying and immersing myself in it. "Getting recognition for
's performance and works, and finally winning an award at an international film festival, Shen Shiyu felt that it was a natural process. "The Eurasian International Film Festival gave me the Best Actress Award for "Gong Xiu". For me, It means a lot, but from my personal point of view, I have never thought about anything specific that winning the award can bring. Winning the award means more that the works I participated in have been seen, and it means that everyone knows that I am doing something. A famous actor, and it is possible to see me and my character Kong Xiu in the theater. This should be the greatest expression of an actor’s value. "
Shen Shiyu said that as an actor, acting is his most important job. The greatest pleasure that acting brings to him is that he can broaden his life and think about the meaning and essence of life. "What I can do is When getting along with the character, perform well, feel well, and be worthy of the character, that is, worthy of the self in parallel time and space.
Shen Shiyu admitted that she actually wanted to give up this career countless times, but in the end she persisted, "Because every time I wanted to give up, I found that I couldn't find any job other than being an actor. A job that gives me so much joy and spiritual satisfaction. While I was working hard to support myself and my family, I also wanted to do my best to stick to the job that really brought me satisfaction and happiness. This job was acting, so I told myself that I could act for the rest of my life. ”
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Zhou Shihao
